Families of deceased babies gather to share support, loss

Shenara Jaynes goes through a scrapbook with her two daughters Shealyn, 9, and Kaila, 1, filled with pictures of their sister Kaila in their home on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. Shenara and her husband Mike lost their second daughter Kelsie when she was just 26 days old in 2005, and they will be a part of the Utah Share Walk on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, where families will release a balloon into the sky as their child's names are read aloud.

Matt Gade, Deseret News

Summary

Utah families whose babies have died, before and after birth, will gather Saturday in honor of the children and to offer support to each other.

LAYTON — Bringing her new baby home from the hospital was pure joy for Shenara Jaynes. It was her second daughter, and she came highly anticipated.

The baby girl weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces, and had lots of blonde hair. She had "the cutest little cry," loved to snuggle and hated being naked, her mother recalls.

"Kelsie is a huge part of our lives, like any of our other children," Jaynes said.

The only difference is that Kelsie died in March 2005, after just 26 days of life.

At the time, doctors couldn't determine what happened. Tests were inconclusive.

Jaynes said Kelsie just stopped breathing, but it turns out she had a genetic condition that led to the premature death.

Jaynes' baby is one of about 4,000 who die each year in the United States of sudden infant death syndrome, suddenly and of no apparent cause. Similarly, 26,000 babies never take their first breath and are stillborn each year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"I still think about her every day," said Jaynes, 27, fighting back tears. "It gets easier as time goes on, but I still miss her."

Her sometimes silent cries, yearning to hold her baby again, are matched by hundreds of other moms and dads, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas and many friends throughout the state.

Those in northern Utah will gather Saturday at the ninth annual Utah Share Walk to Remember to honor the memory of their tiny loved ones.

"You don't want anyone to have this happen to them, but you're so glad you have them all there when it's you," said Natalie Clemens, 30, who gave birth to a stillborn baby boy, Luca, in April 2010.

Clemens noticed that Luca stopped moving at 37 weeks, and an ultrasound confirmed that his heart had quit beating. Luca was later delivered with a true knot in his umbilical cord, which proved to be fatal for him.

Clemens said it was a relief to know the cause of his untimely death, as more than 40 percent of stillbirths go unexplained.

"There was nothing anyone could do, which was good to know, but still maddening," she said.

The Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support organization, which provides help to parents and families who have lost babies at any stage from conception to a few months after birth, sent volunteers to visit Clemens at the hospital. They arranged for photographs, hand and foot impressions and ink prints on paper, and gave her lots of little mementos of the day her baby died.

Those trinkets have become invaluable to her, but Clemens is also reminded of her third son whenever she sees rainbows, hears a sentimental song, or watches a balloon drift into the atmosphere to the point of disappearing. She says she likes to think it reaches him in heaven.

"Things like that help me to remember he's real," Clemens said. "Sometimes you get so far removed from it and you think, 'Did that really happen?' But this reminds you that it did and that you love him and miss him, and hopefully you'll see him again someday."

The annual walk gives her and her family — Luca's father, two older brothers and a younger one — a chance to remember their "angel brother," as they call him.

The experience, Clemens said, also helps her appreciate her living children even more.

"I'm still a normal mom. I still yell at my kids, and I get frustrated at times and wish I could be a better mom," she said, "but I do think I cherish them more than I would have if I had not lost Luca."

Wendy Leonard works as a reporter for the Deseret News, and while her daily duties are dictated by breaking news, she currently focuses on writing about issues involving health care, medicine and transportation. She began more ..